Read an Insight Report on early years and supporting better outcomes for young children, from across five A Better Start partnerships around the UK.
Supporting parents in the early years is a key priority for government and local services in England, with policies being developed as part of the Best Start for Life agenda and the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. The Start for Life programme aims to provide integrated support for families with children, particularly during the early years, through local Family Hubs that bring together health, education and family support services.
Family Hubs provide both universal and targeted parenting support, including antenatal education, infant relationship support, behaviour management programmes and peer support opportunities. Alongside this, the Healthy Child Programme provides the national public health framework for children and informs the work of health visitors and school nursing services. It emphasises prevention, early intervention and family support with all families receiving support but those with greater needs receiving additional targeted interventions.
Support for parents can be based on manualised, evidence-based programmes and interventions, or more organically developed parenting support that is evidence-based but more flexible, to support skills development for groups of parents as needs emerge.
A Better Start used both approaches and developed flexible, practical support to tackle specific challenges, based on evidence from parents’ feedback.
What works in practice
- Combining evidence-based programmes with flexible support
Structured parenting programmes can be effective, but the greatest engagement came from combining them with tailored, co-designed support that responds to families' changing needs. - Focusing on the issues that matter most to parents
Parents particularly valued practical help with everyday challenges such as healthy eating, oral health, financial wellbeing and building skills and confidence for employment. - Designing services around accessibility and parent feedback
Services were most successful when they adapted to parent feedback and reduced barriers to participation through measures such as local venues, childcare provision and multiple ways to access support. - Building trust through community and peer support
Trusted local organisations, parent volunteers and peer supporters were highly effective in reaching underserved families, strengthening engagement and making services more responsive. - Co-producing with benefits to all
Involving parents in the design and delivery of services improved the quality of support while also developing parents' own skills, confidence, leadership and community connections.
Explore the evidence and case studies in more detail.